Fabriksstadt 1939

Karl Wiener made "Fabriksstadt" with crayon, and it's a riot of color applied with a sort of joyous abandon. It’s all about the process, the feel of the crayon on the paper, the layering of hues. You can sense Wiener figuring it out as he goes. Check out the sky, that sun bursting with red rays over the smoky factory. The crayon isn’t blended perfectly, which gives it this raw, immediate quality. You can almost feel the pressure of his hand, the scratch of the crayon, a really personal and sensory experience. And those buildings! Angular, almost collapsing in on themselves, rendered in purples and blacks, the factory becomes this almost menacing presence, set against the more hopeful, almost childlike rendering of the sky. This piece reminds me of Marsden Hartley who was also exploring the visual language of expressionism at this time. But Wiener's touch feels less studied, more like a primal scream onto paper. Art’s not about answers, right? It’s about the questions, the feelings, the mess of it all.